Welcome to Chapter 49!
Today we sit down with Dr. Andrea Sereda at the Sherbourne Health Centre on the east side of downtown Toronto, an area of the city sometimes known for its challenges with drug abuse.
Who is Dr. Andrea Sereda?
Dr. Andrea Sereda is a family physician who practices street outreach medicine. She provides care through the London InterCommunity Health Centre in London, Ontario and works with the emergency safer supply substitution program to prescribe hydromorphone, an opioid used by injection drug users to reduce the risk of contaminated street drugs.
Wait! What?
Yes, on the face of it, Dr. Andrea Sereda gives drugs to drug users but there is a lot more to the story. We are going right to the front lines of the opioid epidemic which, even before the end of this conversation, will take 10 lives in North America alone. (To illustrate the issue more deeply, 8,048 Americans died of opioid related drug overdoses in 1999. What about now? Well, the number was 47,600 in 2017, which is the most recently available data.)
It will take ingenuity, creativity, and passion to address this issue. As you’ll hear, Dr. Andrea Sereda offers all three in spades. Her views are often provocative, sometimes controversial, and she will argue that drugs should be decriminalized and why we should indeed give drugs to drug users. What about the challenges to these ideas? The critics? The controversies? We get into that, too. And we are fortunate enough to use Andrea’s three most formative books as a launchpad into this conversation.
I am so grateful to Dr. Andrea Sereda for sharing so much of her life, her journey, and her practice with all of us.
I find her and her work incredibly challenging, intriguing, and inspiring.
I hope you do, too.
Let’s go!
Listen to Chapter 49 of 3 Books:
Click here to Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, or Google Play.
What You'll Learn:
Why should drugs be given to drug users?
Should drugs be decriminalized? Why or why not?
What is actually more harmful -- the drugs themselves or the quality of drugs?
How can we reduce stigma on people in our communities living with mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness?
Can drugs be considered a ‘basic need’?
notable quotes from Dr. andrea sereda:
“I failed at being an astronaut so therefore I am a doctor.” Dr. Andrea Sereda #3bookspodcast
CONNECT With Andrea:
word of the chapter:
Resources Mentioned:
Andrea’s First Book [09:33]
Andrea’s Second Book [13:48]
Andrea’s Third Book [48:30]
Vancouver Health Agency Floats $6-Million Take-Home Drug Plan For Addicts
The Vagina Bible by Dr. Jen Gunter
TED Talk - Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong
